The Military's Showdown Over PTSD
Battle Between The Old School And New School Methods For Handling Troops' Mental Health
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Play CBS Video Video Soldiers Denied PTSD Treatment Experts warn that a new generation of soldiers is positioned to suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. But as Kimberly Dozier reports, the military is doing little to ease their pain.
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Twenty-two year old combat medic Jonathan Norrell is still haunted by his memories of war. Now, his battle over PTSD illustrates the military's internal disagreements over the disorder. (CBS)
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(CBS/AP)
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He was bombed, ambushed, treating wounded under fire - and the memories still haunt him, CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier reports.
"The things that affected me the most weren't the IEDs, which I went through six or seven of, and all the firefights, and all the combat," Norrell said. "It was the psychological stuff, the people I failed to help."
By the time he came off his tour of duty he was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: anxiety, sleeplessness, flashbacks. Military doctors recommended immediate discharge and treatment but the command refused.
Instead they forced him into combat training exercises. He turned to drugs and alcohol.
"I just lost it," Norrell said. "I didn't wanna do it anymore."
So the Army he served so well in Iraq threatened to expel him without medical benefits.
Norrell's case reveals the showdown inside the military, between the new school and old school view on how to handle PTSD - one of the signature injuries of the Afghan and Iraq wars.
And experts warn there's a storm coming: a generation of soldiers coming home with PTSD.
A new study estimates that roughly one in five U.S. troops is suffering from major depression or post-traumatic stress from serving in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and an equal number have suffered brain injuries.
CBS News has been given documents showing more than 100,000 vets of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are seeking help for mental health disorders.
Norrell decided to fight back by reaching out to veteran's groups and advocates like Carissa Picard of Military Spouses for Change. Picard's husband leaves for Iraq in June.
"Our soldiers didn't choose to wage this war; they didn't choose to go to Iraq or Afghanistan," she said. "We've sent them there. We need to take responsibility for what happens to them."
Norrell's struggle for help took months of meetings, phone calls, e-mails, lobbying Congressmen and the top levels of the Pentagon before she finally got help at Fort Hood.
We asked the man in charge there why it took so long.
"The field commander recognizes the soldier has a problem, and they request the soldier to be transferred to the warrior transition unit," said Col. Casper P. Jones III.
Dozier said: "That sounds great, but we know in this situation, for several months, it didn't happen."
"It didn't happen," Jones said. "I think there are lessons from this case that can help us all as we move forward."
CBS News has learned that top Pentagon officials have made visits to bases across the country. They're telling Army commanders to take their doctors' diagnoses more seriously, and get the troops treatment.FYI: Warning Signs, Symptoms and How To Find Help for PTSD
Norrell hopes that by speaking out, other troops won't have to fight so hard to get the help they need.
"Hopefully what happened to me won't happen to any more soldiers," he said.
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FYI: Warning Signs, Symptoms and How To Find Help for PTSD
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See all 79 CommentsMoreover, with PTSD, Americans pay for it one way or another, sooner or later. We can either pay for it in a larger DoD budget now (for mental health care and immediate crisis intervention and treatment) or we can pay for it later at the state level and federal level as our at-risk veterans deteriorate and fail to successfully reintegrate into peacetime society (thus placing increasing demands on our emergency services, social services, police services, etc.).
The fact remains we cannot ask our young men and women to perform and witness inhumane activities and conditions and still expect them to return unchanged.
From substandard living quarters for recovering wounded warriors at Walter Reed (and other DoD facilities) to soldier suicides to delays in receiving disability benefits, many believe that OEF/OIF has revealed a systemic inability by our military and veteran institutions to adequately support our servicemembers who have been physically and/or emotionally traumatized by combat. MSC believes it is time to change that.
Oil+Money Israel More greed lies=Iraq (No 9/11)
Xcop....Don''''t use 9/11 to justify the war in Iraq. You sound like Rudy and Cheney
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Posted by apprxam
Unfortunately this allows so little space for arguments/debates..Is there a forum we csn that this to where we don''t have to cut to 1500 characters it makes it very hard to follow...I don''t use 9/11 to justify the Iraqi War..Remember Congress..They saw the same intelligence that President Bush did..They approved the war so don''t blame him for this..
Thank you for your service...I was a kid when Vietnam was in full play...You hit it right on the head...Shame on these people that treated you soldiers the way they did when when you made it home. They make me SICK...Your a hero..I lost people that lived in the neughborhood I grew up in..You deserved to step foot on this countries soil as the heros that you are...Not being denegrated for following orders and protecting this country
I am a Viet Nam Combat Veteran.
The PTSD I suffer, if any, is from all the do-gooder, propagandists on the left who don''''t give a real care for a single man or women in uniform, its all rhetoric. Go pay a visit to a VA Hospital.
Those WHO THEMSELVES have NEVER SERVED but who continually spew HYPOCRISY as if these soldiers were THEIR FIRST priority when in TRUTH given the opportiunity to serve they did and would flee.
I feel for these soldiers. I was one. Let us take care of our own.
The rest of you PHONIES should go back and hunker down in your doomsday shelters.
Thank you for your service...I was a kid when Vietnam was in full play...You hit it right on the head...Shame on these people that treated you soldiers the way they did when when t SICK...Your a hero..I lost people that lived in thehey returned from Vietnam..You deserved to step foot on this countries soil as the heros that you are...
I''ve never been to war, had an uncle who was a WWII vet from Dunquerque and my grand father fought and almost died on the Somme. Neither of them ever talked about their war experiences. Both my parents grew up in England during WWII and remember the Blitz. PTSD has been around for ever in various guises. In WWI it was shell shock (they shot people at dawn for that one - on both sides); WWII - battle fatigue; only since Viet-Nam has it been recognised as PTSD. I''ve heard legions of stories about the VA''s inadquacy, mostly from Viet-Nam Vets (and I see a remarkable number on these boards; my thanks for your service abd your sacrifices) but now more and more from Gulf War Vets. I cannot believe that this government will not stand by their men to try and improve things. The whole veteran community should be behind the work of Ms. Piccard and her organization. For the likes of demslie and the other two or three equally deranged individuals of the ilk may I suggest that you follow Woody Allen''s famous words "I was declared 5H - in time of war, I''m a hostage." That way you''d be out of sight, out of mind and allowing some useful work to be done by people currently in that position.
Posted by newsreader2 at 11:08 AM : Apr 18, 2008"
Nicely put.
Our Government an our Military has got to stop treating our soldiers as expendable commodities. They serve without question, they deserve respect and help when they get home not derision and indifference. The Government can spend 2 Billion a day fighting in Iraq, it can afford to spend a few bucks at home helping those who served.
Posted by exaag at 10:03 AM : Apr 18, 2008"
IF you were a Nam vet and IF you are a prosecutor you''re a f**king disgrace to the uniform and to the legal profession. I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of Vets of every war to say a vehement F**K YOU!
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